Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Wolverines jump to the front of the line for endangered species protections
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agrees to make listing decision by 2013

Summary

• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed on a listing determination date of no later than September 30, 2013 for wolverines in the contiguous U.S.  The agreement was formalized in a legal settlement reached between Center for Biological Diversity and the Service and must now be approved by a federal court.
• In December, wolverines became a candidate for Endangered Species Act protections in the western United States due to their low numbers and the decline of habitat with persistent spring snowpack.
• The 2013 deadline puts wolverines near the top of the list of more than 250 other candidate species that the Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to consider for listing during the next five years.

BOZEMAN, Mont. (July 12, 2011) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that it will determine whether wolverines deserve full protection of the  Endangered Species Act by 2013.  Wolverines in the contiguous U.S. were added to the Candidate species list last December because of their low numbers and the threats posed to their habitat by global warming, but continue to await federal protection. The best data available suggests there are fewer than 300 animals across the entire western U.S., with only 35 individuals–just a tenth of the population–successfully breeding.

“This is welcome news indeed for the wolverine,” said David Gaillard, Rocky Mountain representative for Defenders of Wildlife. “The Emergency Room waiting area was crowded when the wolverine entered last December, and we knew the species couldn’t afford to wait very long for ESA protections.  But we’re hopeful that, by making a final listing decision within the next two years, the Fish and Wildlife Service will have wolverines on a path to recovery in the very near future.”

“With today’s agreement, the wolverine has a shot at survival,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity.  “Saving the wolverine will require swift action to address global warming, which is gravely threatening spring snowpacks the wolverine needs to survive.”

“Can anyone say an animal this rare is not at serious risk of disappearing forever? Its numbers are dangerously low.  Its population spans five western states, with dispersers in two others.  Plus it is at direct risk from climate change, a problem that the federal government has failed to fully grapple with.” said Tim Preso, attorney for Earthjustice. “It is high time that the wolverine received long-awaited legal protections.”

“The wolverine is in dire straits,” said Dave Werntz with Conservation Northwest. “Its current plight is exactly what Congress had in mind when it passed the Endangered Species Act in order to save America’s wildlife from extinction.”

The following conservation organizations have sought to protect the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act since petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do so in the Year 2000: Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Friends of the Clearwater, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Idaho Conservation League, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Wyoming Outdoor Council.

Read the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s announcement regarding the revised workplan.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolverine webpage.

Visit the Wolverine Network, a new site dedicated to wolverine research and conservation.

Watch PBS Nature’s documentary on wolverines, “Chasing the Phantom.”

Click here to read the full press release.

Folks may recall the exciting news I reported last month when one of our intrepid “citizen scientist” volunteers Kalon Baughan managed to photograph a wild lynx while surveying a transect not far from his house near Lincoln, Montana.  Well, during the weeks that followed (we enjoyed an unusually long winter out here, even by Montana standards), Kalon and his partner Dan Kreutz upped the ante yet again by first photographing wild wolverines and then capturing one on video!

As I mentioned in my previous post, our non-profit wildlife research partners at Wild Things Unlimited trained Kalon and Dan and dozens of other citizen scientist volunteers to identify and record tracks in the snow and other wildlife observations in this area.  Other groups collaborating with us in this citizen scientist project are Montana Wilderness Association (see their slide show of one of our training sessions here) and Winter Wildlands Alliance.  Patagonia Corporation generously funded this project through its environmental grants program (we can’t link to a for-profit corporation, but you know how to find them).

“Hopefully, citizen scientist volunteers can help make a positive difference for sustainability of our perishable and precious natural world,” said Kalon. “This is very empowering for an avid nature enthusiast, such as myself.  Average people can make a difference.”

Most of us are superbly lucky if we ever cross the tracks of one of these elusive carnivores, but by taking advantage of an elk carcass and then a nearby boulder field strewn with wolverine tracks, our volunteers captured the remarkable images shown here.

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Snow cave

Snow cave

Snow cave

Snow cave

Wolverine track

Wolverine tracks

Wolverine trail

Wolverine

Wolverine

Wolverine

Unidentifiable carnivore tracks

Lynx trail

Lynx tracks

Lynx

Lynx

Bear claw marks on an Aspen tree

Snow piles up at Upper Moose Creek

The infamous and ever-elusive Hydromantia plastisol--the free-roaming water bottle.

Check out Kalon’s notes (primary report and addendum) and see not just more of his lynx photos but also three wolverine photos and a wolverine video taken with the use of his remote camera.  The beauty of this methodology is that it is “non-invasive,” meaning no animals were harmed or significantly influenced by the observers.

“Hopefully, citizen scientist volunteers can help make a positive difference for sustainability of our perishable and precious natural world,” said Kalon. “This is very empowering for an avid nature enthusiast, such as myself.  Average people can make a difference.”

Congratulations and thank you to Kalon, Dan, and our research partners at Wild Things Unlimited for their extraordinary efforts and perseverance necessary to collect this exciting new information, which we will use in our work to help ensure the long-term survival of these magnificent animals in this wild and remote area of Montana.

Wolverines find habitat on national forests.

Wolverines, grizzly bears, fishers, frogs, owls and more will face an uncertain future on our nation’s forests if the Obama administration’s proposed forest plan goes unchallenged.

But thanks to the more than 87,000 Defenders, who spoke for the trees and submitted comments to the U.S. Forest Service asking for stronger wildlife protections, there is reason for hope.

Since February, Defenders members and supporters have been helping to get the word out about how the proposed changes to the National Forest Management Act forest-planning rule will weaken long-standing protections for wildlife.

In an impressive showing of support, many advocates took time off from their everyday lives to attend public meetings held by the Forest Service, voiced concerns with their congressional leaders, and wrote letters to their local newspapers.

The forest-planning rule lays out the “rules of the road” for how the Forest Service is supposed to manage 155 national forests and 20 grasslands, guiding forest managers as they decide which areas of the forest should be protected for wildlife and which can be safely logged.

Plenty Is at Stake

A spotted owl finds refuge in the Apache National Forest in Arizona. National forests have more intact populations of rare species than any other federal land system, providing habitat for some 3,400 sensitive species.

The Forest Service manages some 193 million acres of public lands (an area as big as Texas) which provide a lifeline for one-fifth of federally protected threatened and endangered species and provide millions of Americans with drinking water.

There’s Still Time to Act

The public comment period on the Obama administration’s proposed forest plan expires May 16.

Help us reach our goal of 100,000 comments. Tell the Forest Service you want to protect wildlife on our nation’s forests.

Too few to trap

Three wolverines have been trapped so far this year in Montana.

Elusive critters like fishers and wolverines are nearly impossible to find in the wild. Across the entire Rocky Mountains, each species numbers fewer than 300 individuals. But that doesn’t stop trappers from trying to snare a few in Montana each year for their own personal collections.

Fishers and wolverines are mid-sized carnivores that lead a very solitary existence in remote alpine forests in the Rocky Mountains. They reproduce slowly, often taking many years to find a mate and raise their offspring. Now global warming is making life more difficult by shifting their range and shrinking the amount of viable habitat. So preserving as many individuals as possible is essential for these species’ long-term survival.

The latest trapping report from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks indicates that nine fishers were killed this year, even though the statewide quota was just seven animals (one district went over its quota by three). Three wolverines were caught so far this year out of a statewide quota of five, and the season remains open in one district. Seven swift foxes were also harvested, out of a total statewide quota of 20.

Trapping is a relatively minor threat to these species, and state wildlife agencies typically set quotas low enough to ensure the long –term survival of species. But there are so few fishers, wolverines and swift foxes that continued trapping can have a noticeable impact, especially when quotas are exceeded.

Protecting lynx and wolverines

Researchers are studying lynx in Montana in order to improve conservation of this threatened species.

Trapping isn’t always a bad thing, however. Nonlethal trapping is an essential tool for researchers who want to know how animals behave in the wild. It can be extremely difficult to track the movement of individual animals without trapping them first to put on a radio collar or other tracking device, especially very rare critters like lynx and wolverines that live in remote alpine areas.

Wolverines were recently put on the candidate list of endangered species because of long-term threats to their future. Canada lynx are already protected as a threatened species and therefore no longer trapped or hunted in the contiguous United States. But there is still much to learn about both species that will help improve conservation efforts and guarantee their survival.

Don’t miss this fascinating story about lynx in the February issue of Smithsonian Magazine. Join writer Abigail Tucker as she trudges through the Garnet Mountains of Montana with a team of researchers, hot on the trail of the elusive lynx. In cases like these, animals are not harmed when they are trapped. Being able to study animals in the wild helps answer essential questions about their conservation status and needs.  Here’s a short excerpt:

“The chances that we’ll trap and collar a lynx today are slim. The ghost cats are incredibly scarce in the continental United States, the southern extent of their range. Luckily for Squires and his field technicians, the cats are also helplessly curious. The study’s secret weapon is a trick borrowed from old-time trappers, who hung mirrors from tree branches to attract lynx. The scientists use shiny blank CDs instead, dabbed with beaver scent and suspended with fishing line near chicken-wire traps. The discs are like lynx disco balls, glittering and irresistible, drawing the cats in for a closer look. Scientists also hang grouse wings, which the lynx swat with their mammoth paws, shredding them like flimsy pet store toys.”

“If a lynx is enticed into a trap, the door falls and the animal is left to gnaw the bunny bait, chew the snow packed in the corners and contemplate its folly until the scientists arrive. The lynx is then injected with a sedative from a needle attached to a pole, wrapped in a sleeping bag with plenty of Hot Hands (packets of chemicals that heat up when exposed to the air), pricked for a blood sample that will yield DNA, weighed and measured and, most important, collared with a GPS device and VHF radio transmitter that will record its location every half-hour. “We let the lynx tell us where they go,” Squires says. They’ve trapped 140 animals over the years—84 males and 56 females, which are shrewder and harder to capture yet more essential to the project, because they lead the scientists to springtime dens.”

Read more about what Defenders is doing to protect fishers, lynx and wolverines.

The wolverine’s future looks just a little bit brighter today.

As winter snow started to fall across the country yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the imperiled wolverine deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act. Hopefully that will happen sooner, rather than later, as the wolverine may not have much time.

Wolverines (Gulo gulo) were given a spot in line today on the growing list of species warranting federal protection under the ESA.

There are only an estimated 250 to 300 wolverines in the wild in the lower 48 scattered across remote alpine habitats in the Rocky Mountains and Northwest. The species is highly dependent on snowpack that persists into spring, which provides much-needed cover for their young that spend the first few months of life in a secure den up to 8-feet deep. Heavy snow also gives the wolverine a competitive advantage over rivals during long winter months when food is scarce.

Importantly, the Service’s finding acknowledges that global warming poses a serious threat to the species’ survival. Like the polar bear, wolverines are finding fewer and fewer places to call home as seasons get shorter and snowpack diminishes–the large, snowy areas that wolverines need are getting smaller and more isolated from each other.

Unfortunately, the Service also deferred any immediate action until higher priority species are adequately protected. The wolverine was given a priority number of six (on a scale of 1 to 12), putting it half-way down the list of 250-some candidate species already awaiting protection.

While the decision is a landmark achievement and a reversal of the Service’s prior determination that protections were not warranted, the wolverine’s future may still be in jeopardy. Defenders was instrumental in getting the Service to revisit its decision, and we will continue to work with our colleagues at the Wolverine Network to ensure that Gulo gulo is here to stay.

Read our full statement here.

Full coverage also in today’s Denver Post.

Ever wonder what it’s like to see through a wolverine’s eyes, smell through a wolverine’s nose, and walk in a wolverine’s feet? Ever even heard of a wolverine? (Hint:  it is NOT a small wolf).  This Sunday night is your chance to get as close as you can to becoming a wolverine, by hearing fascinating stories and watching breath-taking footage of both wild and captive wolverines in Montana’s Glacier National Park and Alaska.  Whether you are a wolverine expert or neophyte, you are bound to learn a ton from this film and get very excited about this rare alpine carnivore of America’s western mountains (Hint:  it IS the largest terrestrial member of the weasel family).

Catch the first-ever extended look at wolverines airing on PBS this Sunday.

Most of us have never seen a good picture of a wolverine, let alone 60 minutes of beautiful footage of them and the adventurous researchers who do their best follow them through some of the wildest country in North America.  Here’s how the film producer Gianna Savoie describes the challenge of making this film:

“I knew from the start that this is an animal that needed its face out there and its story told.  I also knew that this would not be an easy feat.  First off, they are rare (numbering only a few hundred in the Lower 48 States).  Secondly, their habitat is remote and downright ferocious.   And finally, they move over vast distances at a constant clip – 20 miles in a day is nothing to a wolverine, despite their ten-inch legs!  It’s no wonder they are among the least studied – let alone filmed – animals on the planet.”

PBS Nature’s “WOLVERINE: Chasing the Phantom” will air Sunday, November 14^th at 8pm (be sure to check your local listings). Don’t miss this first-of-its-kind footage of wolverines in the wild!

And after the show, go online to visit this brand new website www.wolverinenetwork.org that will connect you with the best information available on wolverines in the American West, and where you can sign up to receive free email updates of wolverine news and events. You can also find out what Defenders and other conservation groups are doing to protect important alpine habitat where the elusive wolverines can thrive.

For Gulo gulo!  (the scientific name for wolverines, which means “glutton glutton”)

Written by Dave Gaillard, Northern Rockies representative & wolverine expert